I had plans for a 4 player party style game for last year's compo. Unfortunately I never put in enough time to actually get it done, even though I'd really like to for this years compo. (One compo rule I had some trouble working around was the no prg-ram one. I needed some extra ram on the cart to get things working)

The chances of me actually making it for this year would probably increase a little if it was a dedicated party cart with neat features like shared scores between games and such, but I think such a requirement would dillute the already very thin nes homebrew scene a little too much.

Such a cart could be made anyways once there are enough authors of party games interested in adjusting them for it. I'm sure people wouldn't mind if some (or all) of the games were already released on the compo carts.

I'm pretty sure I said this last year but I'll say it again: People who want to create new categories (e.g. best 4-player game) should put up money of their own for the prize.

Also, the other thing I wanted to bring up was whether the scores of non-winning games should be displayed or not. Ranking the lowest-scoring games may be discouraging to creators, especially newcomers.

As someone presenting a low-rated entry, I loved to see my score. It allows to compare to others watching objective numbers and (since details were released) it allows to analyze what's going wrong or not-so-wrong category by category. That's actually a very good thing and my favourite part of participating to compo/jams: never hopping to finish first, but see what to improve.

In the cart itself, the "runner-up" titles are sorted alphabetically so players do not start with a bias. It would not be useful to them to have the score and may be perceived as "This game is bad, you will not like it. Play it."

Not sure the best way to make this clear, but our definition of explicit is being questioned for last year's compo cart. Perhaps there's some E10 PG13 rating rules we can link to in the compo rules for games seeking inclusion on the cartridge.

_________________If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers

That would definitely help. The meaning and extents of "Explicit content" varies greatly from country to country. I think those who have entered in previous compos know what is or isn't acceptable, but, to avoid future problems with newcomers, I'd link to an official set of rules of what's considered "all audiences" in your country, which I think is what you are aiming for when you ask for no "explicit content" to be added if the entrant want his or her work eligible for the multicart

I think those who have entered in previous compos know what is or isn't acceptable, but, to avoid future problems with newcomers, I'd link to an official set of rules of what's considered "all audiences" in your country.

I don't think anyone really knows, because the definitions are always vague. If you live in a particular place, you probably have a reasonably good idea of what is "acceptable" for children within your sphere of culture, but that's about it, and there are no hard rules.

There aren't really hard rules for official ratings systems either, there are a lot of subjective decisions made by the various review board in place. They do generally have public guidelines, but the rating decision is ultimately made arbitrarily by a closed group. Some of the guidelines are stupidly arbitrary at face value (e.g. can you say "fuck" one time, but not two times in a PG-13 movie?).

What I think we really need is not so much an attempt to make rules, but a hierarchy of authority so someone can make the subjective call as needed. I think basically infiniteneslives should have the final say here, since he seems to have the most liability and is essentially the role of publisher here. (I can't think of any publisher that does not reserve the right to make arbitrary choices of censorship.)

Putting up some guidelines would be helpful though, as to lower the amount of potential surprise when a censorship decision is made.

If you live in a particular place, you probably have a reasonably good idea of what is "acceptable" for children within your sphere of culture, but that's about it, and there are no hard rules.

And even then there are families with different beliefs, values and traditions living in the same region, with varying degrees of tolerance to "explicit content". If you end up going with the lowest common denominator, things may get pretty limiting.

Drug Reference - Reference to and/or images of illegal drugsUse of Drugs - The consumption or use of illegal drugs

Some of these have already been clearly outlined in the A53 guidelines (gambling for example), but making a clear call beforehand in each category could help reduce confusion and minimize debate. Moreover, if arguments were to arise about what constitutes as what, the ESRB library of rated games is available for comparative reference.

Well, maybe everything is more simple: just add to the rules a notice that the publishers and organizators have the final word on what's considered acceptable for all audiences and may require retouches to the finished product if the author wants it included in the physical multicart.

I think that would sort things out. Of course I know the above statement is implied, but maybe making it clear from the beginning will avoid future conflicts.

Well, maybe everything is more simple: just add to the rules a notice that the publishers and organizators have the final word on what's considered acceptable for all audiences and may require retouches to the finished product if the author wants it included in the physical multicart.

I think that would sort things out. Of course I know the above statement is implied, but maybe making it clear from the beginning will avoid future conflicts.

I agree with this. I think it's also important to realize the difference between the compo and the cartridge. There are no restrictions on compo entries one can be as artistic/explicit as they would like with their compo entry. But when it comes to including that work on a completed cartridge that's a community project, some discretion may be to be exercised.

_________________If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers

In the past we occasionally had missed or was uncertain about when and where updates to entries happens.

Could I offer a suggestion that the entry stubs contain a URL to where updates will be posted, and that the file names of the updates have some sort of incremented version number (whatever that be a serial number, day count, or date).

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum